Hello! My name is Jenny and I'm a senior at Dartmouth studying biology and quantitative social science. On campus, I also work as a communications intern for the Admissions Office, teach piano to elementary school students through Musical Empowerment, and mentor freshmen in the Great Issues Scholars LLC. My hobbies include reading, attempting to finish crossword puzzles, and embroidering, which I only recently picked up. Welcome to my blog!
I looked forward to this class every week, partly because of the professor and partly due to the content. We read books on a wide variety of topics, ranging from privilege and how it affects our interactions with others to restaurant kitchens and the hierarchies inherent in surgical residencies.
Biol13 is structured so that you have to work as a group on difficult class problems and even on some exams, which was novel to me and pushed me to really understand the material. This class inspired me to pursue research (both off-campus and on-campus) related to genetics.
Although this class was daunting to me in the beginning, given that I had little to no experience in either Women's, Gender, and Sexuality or Art History, it was also one of the classes in which I became the most engaged in. For our final project, I investigated the history of allegories in Western art and why they were so often portrayed as women.
SummerOff Campus
I interned at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA under Dr. Livingston. I explored the mechanism by which BRCA1 acts as a tumor suppressor. It was really rewarding to be able to apply what I had learned in Biol13, including specific procedures and techniques we had been tested on, to a real-life laboratory setting.
This class is notorious for its difficulty, and I would not call it an easy class. Nonetheless, it was my favorite class because I loved Professor Jacobi, who has taught at Dartmouth for 22 years, and I appreciated learning mechanisms behind why certain reactions happen. Instead of rote memorization, this class relied on being able to predict the products of a reaction, a skill picked up from lots of practice.
Although this was an introductory class, Professor Craig made it more dynamic and interactive, with several visits to the Hood Museum of Art, ethnography labs, and weekly discussion posts. I learned about everything from the Gebusi culture and their rites of passage to the opioid epidemic. For my final paper, I conducted an ethnography studying the social dynamics that take place in Baker Lobby and how that relates to the exchange of capital.
Though I had taken four years of computer science before (mostly in middle school), I did not have a very good experience with coding prior to taking CS1. However, the professor was one of the best professors I have had, explaining jargon in understandable ways and even giving out chocolate bars to students who answered the most difficult questions she would ask in class. I was certain that there was no way I would be able to create the lab assignments (such as a revolving solar system animation and map of Dartmouth that calculated the shortest possible route between two points), but she enabled all of us to through exercises, short assignments, and exams.
I took this class for a distributive requirement and ended up loving it. Each student was assigned a day to present on a certain topic - mine being patriarchy. I decided to analyze relationships in Crazy Rich Asians through a lens of the patriarchal bargain. We explored transgender issues, the history of feminism, gender identity, and so much more. Would highly recommend!
As someone who didn't know the rules to pretty much any sport, I tentatively signed up for this class. However, the professors made it clear that everyone had a different sports background, so I never felt at a disadvantage. We used Markov chains to predict winners of tennis matches, analyzed field goals kicks using logit models, and listened to guest speakers from a variety of industries.
WinterOff Campus
I spent the winter at the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, studying epidemiology and global health. I was first involved on a project using data surveillance and social media to model Ebola outbreaks in the DRC, but as soon as the COVID-19 outbreak started, I transitioned to that. I was even able to publish my first paper!
SpringOff Campus
I was planning to study in Rome for the term and practice my basic Italian skills, but unfortunately the program was canceled. Instead of taking classes, I decided to continue working at my winter internship at NIH. Some of the research I conducted involved analyzing data on excess mortality as a method of estimating the true burden of COVID-19.
SummerOff Campus
I continued my research at Fogarty while also working part-time as a Learning Fellow for BIOL13 (Gene Expression and Inheritance), a job I also did my sophomore summer. It was great to see some familiar faces and help with transitioning this very interactive class into something Zoom-friendly!
I had heard about this class long before taking it my senior fall, as it's one of those quintessential Dartmouth classes. We had a total of six projects over ten weeks, many of which were group projects. They included everything from building rollercoasters, creating Photoshop posters to combat harmful misconceptions, and designing prototypes to improve student dorm life. I learned so much about what it means to design ethically and purposefully, and will definitely carry these lessons forward with me in my future endeavors.
“Hey! Do you want to grab dinner at Foco tonight?”
Chances are, you have no clue what that means. I was in that same boat when I originally got to Dartmouth. One of the things that you gather as a freshman is that Dartmouth students really do have their own language. From studying in “blobby” to “flitzing” that cute person in your class, there seems to be a made-up word for everything.
Yogurt, fruit, and granola is a combination that never goes wrong.
But back to Foco. Foco is the buffet-like dining hall on-campus, officially known as the Class of ’53 Commons. I actually got in an argument with a friend last week because I believed it was nicknamed “Foco” for “food court” but she thought it was for “Fifty-Three Commons.” We never figured it out, but maybe by the time we graduate, we will have cracked that mystery.
All freshmen are on the 20 meal plan during their freshman fall, which essentially means that they have 20 meal swipes to use per week. A meal swipe can get you into Foco or be used for its equivalent value at other dining halls. After that first term, a lot of students change to other meal plans that give more “DBA” or dining dollars, and fewer meal swipes. For example, I am currently on a meal plan that gives me five meal swipes per term, but a much more significant amount of dining dollars, which allows more flexibility in terms of where I can eat.
Foco toast means you choose from at least twenty spreads, toppings, and ways to satisfy your craving.
But although I disliked Foco by the end of my first term, it was probably because I was just sick of it since I went so much. Now, I love the selection it provides. Whether you’re in the mood for an omelet full of fresh vegetables, toast with almond butter and chia seeds (my favorite), or pretty much any other food even tangentially related to breakfast, Foco will have it. And that’s simply for breakfast! For lunch and dinner, they have a station for vegetarians that is always my go-to for sweet potatoes and vegetables. The grill has chicken and fish, and we can’t ignore the soft-serve machines and infamous Foco cookies.
But beyond being a dining hall, Foco also puts on a few unique nights each term, centered around a theme. This winter, they had a “One” event that brought Hanover restaurants in, each of whom served one signature dish. This was a way for local restaurants to endorse their businesses to students on campus. Last week, they held “An Evening in Italy,” complete with live music, cheese plates, gelato, and so much more food. There was even a Photo Booth (talk about when in Rome…)! Although during these special Foco dinners, the place is usually crowded with students, the lines are usually worth the wait.
Now that you know a little more about the dining halls at Dartmouth, the next time you visit, you can ask the nearest student to point you to Foco. Don’t forget to grab a cookie!
I was attracted by the opportunity to engage with first-year residents and shape their Dartmouth experiences, in addition to working with other UGAs and staff who shared my interest in helping others.
We so very wish you could step onto Dartmouth's campus yourself to witness the beauty of our winters live, but COVID-19 has made visiting campuses extremely difficult. I would love to share some of my favorite photos from this past snowy week!
With lots of things (understandably) still closed on campus, it's nice to know that study spaces are beginning to open up again in a safe and responsible way.
In previous winters, I was able to skate on Occom Pond, usually at events with my Living Learning Community, and I'm glad to see that we're still able to take part in such winter festivities even with COVID-19 restrictions.
Yogurt, fruit, and granola is a combination that never goes wrong.
Foco toast means you choose from at least twenty spreads, toppings, and ways to satisfy your craving. 
